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Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

Box Score

SOMERS, Wis. (Jan. 21, 2016)-- The showdown of nationally-ranked Great Lakes Valley Conference squads lived up the hype on Thursday night with the 24th-ranked University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball team unseating sixth-ranked Bellarmine University in overtime, 85-82, inside DeSimone Gymnasium for the Rangers 10th consecutive victory. Andy Mazurczak shouldered the load late in the contest and in overtime, hitting a basket at the buzzer to force extra time and finishing with a game-high 26 points in a wild affair with seven lead swings and 18 ties.
 
With the victory, UW-Parkside (14-2, 7-1 GLVC) forces a three-way tie atop the East Division standings, sharing the top spot with the vanquished Knights (14-3, 7-1 GLVC) and the University of Indianapolis. The win was the Rangers 28th consecutive GLVC home win, a stretch that has now seen the Green and White knock off nine nationally-ranked teams and six top 10 opponents.
 
Parkside trailed by four with 3:20 left in the contest before buckets from Kendale McCullum and Mazurczak tied the score at 67 with 2:18 remaining. Bellarmine reclaimed the lead on the next possession and owned a two-point buffer with five seconds left. After timeouts from both squads, Mazurczak zig-zagged through the BU defense and nailed a layup as time expired, netting the score at 71 to send the game into overtime.
 
The first bucket of extra time went to the visitors but it was all Rangers after that, getting a jumper from Kyle Flanagan to tie the game before Mazurczak nailed a three with 2:30 remaining. BU closed with closed with a point on two occasions and trailed by just two with 41 ticks left before another big shot from Mazurczak gave the Rangers an 84-80 buffer with seven seconds left. Alexander Brown hit a free throw with six seconds left and BU misfired on a three at the buzzer, giving the Rangers the win and snapping BU's 11-game win streak.
 
Bellarmine opened the game with a trey and took an early 13-6 lead with 15:06 left in the opening stanza. UW-Parkside answered with a 13-0 run, seizing a 19-13 edge with 11:11 left. Chavares Flanagan got things going with a layup and tallied six of the squad's 13 points during the stretch, capped off with a Jake Verhagen three. BU reclaimed its lead with eight straight points and the two squads traded leads the rest of the first half with neither squad owning more than a one possession advantage as the Knights took a 38-36 lead into the break.
 
Bellarmine built a seven-point advantage with 14:45 left in the ballgame only to see the Rangers charge back, mounting a 14-4 spurt to claim a 58-55 lead. Mazurczak kicked things off with a three while Brown closed out the spurt and gave the Green and White the lead, hitting a layup and a free throw in an and one situation with 8:43 remaining. The Knights fought back and were able to build a four-point buffer with 3:20 remaining. Consecutive Parkside baskets tied the score with 2:18 left and neither team led by more than a possession the rest of regulation.
 
Mazurczak led all scorers with 26 points while also adding eight rebounds, shooting nine-for-12 from the field. Brown and McCullum tallied 14 and 13, respectively while Flanagan added 12 points and eight boards off the bench. Goran Zagorac finished with 11 rebounds, including five on the offensive end as UW-Parkside owned a dominating 44-27 rebounding edge.
 
Rusty Troutman paced BU with 20 points while Michael Parrish added 18. Al Davis had 14 with George Suggs chipping in 13.
 
UW-Parkside owned a massive 17-3 edge in second chance points, securing 15 offensive boards on the night while enjoying a 30-10 edge in bench production.
 
Parkside returns to the court on Saturday, finishing off its three-game homestand against the University of Southern Indiana.